Indian Fall: Prelude to Resistance
After the scuffle between the Cree and the police, Big Bear knew he had no hope of meeting
Dewdney or travelling to Ottawa. But the resistance he had led for so long began to grow. In
late July 1884, he participated in a meeting of twelve chiefs from the Carlton area, most of
whom had a history of cooperating with the Canadian authorities. Now they, too, were disillusioned
with the government and its treatment of their people. And in the fall, the chiefs along the North
Saskatchewan launched a major diplomatic campaign. They began organizing a grand council of all
Plains Cree leaders for the summer of 1885, the objective being to force the government to
renegotiate their treaties.
The Canadian government, meanwhile, remained wedded to the status quo and more determined than ever
to crush the Cree resistance. The "no-work, no-rations" policy stayed in place. Prime Minister Macdonald
ordered the recruitment of a hundred new mounted police officers, confiding in a letter to an associate
that "I do not apprehend myself any rising, but with these warnings it would be criminal negligence not
to take every precaution." Dewdney, by now lieutenant-governor of the territories, as well as Indian
commissioner, hired a mixed-blood interpreter named Peter Ballendine to spy on the Cree leaders by
visiting their camps and gathering information about preparations for the grand council. And he
concocted an insidious plan to smash the Cree diplomatic initiative by having the police arrest Big
Bear, Piapot, Little Pine and other leaders in the spring of 1885. He would then have charged with
inciting insurrection.
Uncertainty prevailed in the North-West as fall turned to winter and a new year began. At the very
least, the Plains Cree and their adversaries in the Canadian government were headed for a political
confrontation. But rebellion was also a possibility. Settlers in the vast but sparsely populated
territory talked fearfully of an Indian uprising, and some eastern Canadian newspapers were predicting
violence. It was more than idle speculation.
Two wild cards had surfaced to make the political situation even more volatile. The Metis of the South
Saskatchewan fed up with the distant and indifferent government of Canada, which for years had ignored
their pleas and petitions for recognition of land claims along the river and its tributaries. Finally,
in the spring of 1884, they had sent a delegation south to bring Louis Riel back from exile in Montana
to lead their cause. Riel provided the spark that set the country ablaze. Furthermore, he gave the
Canadian authorities the pretext they needed to crush the Plains Cree, once and for all.